“I don't like this Princess, I really don't, they're his memories and... it just feels wrong.”

Twilight? That's her voice, she sound sad or... scared? What's wrong?

“I know, my faithful student, but this is the only way, it's time you knew what you and your friends are going up against. In truth I should have warned you before but I still hoped to protect you all, what happened with Fluttershy proves that this is going to involve all of you though.”

Princess Celestia, of course, but... Fluttershy, she lived right? I think so, I remember casting the spell, I remember the Night Princess arriving several moments later and taking her to the hospital with the others.

“He's been down here for weeks though Princess, is this... really necessary?”

Weeks? Down where?

“I know you believe that he wasn't responsible for the injuries of your friends, and I believe you; Rarity, Pinkamena, and Applejack all reported the same thing, that Jasper stood over what looked like a brutalized clone of himself. It is, after all, hard to doubt the word of the Element of Honesty.”

That's right, the mausoleum, that foalish girl... she came down there, she found the secret darkness that Silver Twist had hidden away all those years ago.

“I didn't think it was him even before that Princess,” oh bless, she sounds so indignant, “you don't know him like I do, nothing about that... that thing was like Jasper, the way he moved, the way he spoke, none of his usual habits of inflections. It was almost like somepony made a poor copy of him and all they got was the general shape correct.”

Leave it to Twilight, my little egghead, to notice those kinds of things even as she's getting her purple noggin concussed by a psychotic clone.

“As I said, I am aware of that fact, Twilight.”

“Then why keep in chained in the dungeon like this? It wasn't his fault! He didn't do anything! He even saved Fluttershy!”

Saved. I can't say I agree with that term for what I did, more like 'preserved'. What I did to Fluttershy will be with her for the remainder of her natural life assuming she recovers.

“Yes, I am also, painfully, aware that he 'saved' Fluttershy, although I can not say that that is the word I would use.”

The Princess's voice became tight and angry, her words matching up eerily with my thoughts, clearly she recognized the lengths I went to to ensure that Fluttershy would survive her grievous wounds.

“What do you mean Princess?”

“You were there at Ponyville General when my sister arrived with your friend of course, you heard her screams, correct?”

“Y-yes.”

“Did you read the doctor's report?”

“N-no.”

“Here, read it.”

I shuddered, I could only imagine what a medical professional would have though of the absolut atrocity I'd inflicted on poor Fluttershy, I didn't regret it though, her last unspoken words still echoed in my ears. 'I don't want to die.'

“Uhm, ok, let's see... Patient Name: Emilé Fluttershy, blood type, coat color, blah blah blah, uhm... ok here we go. 'It is...' oh sun...

'It is the opinion of this doctor that the patient should be dead, there is no physical or metaphysical reason within my area of knowledge that could possibly allow for Miss Fluttershy to have survived such a fatal blow for more than a moment. Severe damage was done to the heart and lungs with over a pint and a half of blood lost, the shock alone would be a death sentence for any pony. Defying all reasoning her heart continues to pump in a manner which I can only call 'impossible', the right and left ventricles were nearly severed along the interventricular groove and yet both continue to act as though the damage did not exist. The major veins within the groove were damage beyond any hope of timely repair, during the two and a half hour surgery we expected the patient to die at any moment, but she did not. The patient did, however, continue to scream in agony as we stitched her heart back together, using advanced medical spells to bind the severed veins and repair the musculature of the heart. She is currently in a medically induced coma to allow for faster healing although it is unknown as to when or even if she will ever awaken, the trauma done to her central nervous system is beyond my knowledge.

Personal note: three of my nurses quit last night after the surgery without giving notice. I don't blame them, I'm sending them notices telling them that I'll give them glowing reviews for their next job assuming they can ever set foot in a hospital again.'

Twilight, I'm so sorry, please forgive me, I did what I had to do.

“What Captain Shale did in that place did indeed save Fluttershy's life, but he did so through terrible and forbidden powers.”

“What... what did he do to her Princess?”

I felt a sharp pain in my heart, her voice was laced with hurt and betrayal, as well as fear. She was afraid of me, of what I had done. She should be.

“In short? He denied her the ability to die.”

Silence. I could almost see Twilight's jaw working unintelligibly. What the Princess said was, in all fairness, totally accurate.

“To describe it simply, he used his magic to rivet, stitch, and nail Fluttershy's soul into her body so strongly that not even death itself could pry her free of it, forcing her body to continue functioning long after it should have failed due to massive trauma.”

The sound of retching. I don't blame her, what I'd done was monstrous, forbidden except in the most radical of magical circles hundreds of years ago. The ultimate 'gray magic'.

“Now you see why we must go into his mind. See his memories, it's time to understand.”

My memories? But-

“But how? I thought you said you sealed them away, and that even you couldn't read his mind because of that conditioning spell that Silver Twist placed on him.”

“That is quite so, which is why you are here. You see he guarded Shale's mind against my own but, my faithful student, and I am so sorry to bring this to you, but he did not guard against yours.”

Even in the null void that I seemed to hang in I could feel my blood run cold.

“P-Princess, do you mean you want me to... are you asking me to violate my friend's mind?”

I can only imagine the pain Twilight was going through, having learned of my atrocity at the same time that her beloved teacher asks her to commit her very own.

“I am, Twilight, and I am sorry but I am not asking.”

More silence.

“...”

“...”

“Of course, your majesty, as you command.”

Her voice was cold and entirely devoid of the warmth of love and respect that normally tinged every word when she spoke to, or even about, her mentor. It hurt me even here, I could only imagine the pain the Princess felt. Goddess, will Twist make monsters out of us all before this is all over? Then my mind became filled with lavender-colored pain and light as my closest friend tore the walls around my mind down and let the tortured memories flow forth.

The stink of the shelled out landscape was an omnipresent factor on a battlefield, especially on in a swamp. This particular Luna-damned shit hole was called LaCroix, Prench for The Cross I'd heard and in my opinion it fit, after all, somepony had to have designed this island as a form of torture because there was no way nature was this much of a bitch. The tents kept having to be set up since the ground was moist enough that no amount of nails or pitons would secure the ropes and canvas in place for more than a few hours. Not to mention to constant biting insects that made sleeping an absolute nightmare, not that I slept but I imagined it would be Tartarus on Equestria for those who did. I was making my way to the command tent where I would give yet another overview of the situation which, in a word, was twigged. The Griffons had the advantage of flying over the brutal terrain but the constant mist and sparse but serviceable tree cover made attacking from the sky impossible. Likewise, we ground-pounding ponies had to deal with pitfalls, quicksand, gators, venomous snakes and insects, and all other manner of environmental hazards that made traversing the land en masse a non-option. The meeting went as such followed by loud bluster and arguing from the central command goof-ups who'd sent us here in the first place.

I didn't blame them since the land was, without a doubt, a vital and strategic location for the Griffons. If they could secure it as a beachhead for the war then we'd be bucked because there was no way we'd be able to dig them out short of just torching the entire island which I was beginning to consider as an option out of sheer annoyance. It was several miles off the coast of south-eastern Equestria and, if the Griffons got a hold of it it would mean a secure supply line from Gryfa straight to our shores, meaning the war would likely drag on for another several years. So yes, I agreed entirely with central command that this shit hole had to be held at all costs. What I wanted was for them to stop sending me armored vehicles and artillery that inevitably ended up treads-deep in the muck and useless within an hour of arrival, and start sending me guerrilla-trained operatives that I could actually use before I just said 'buck it' and sent the requisition guys into the fight.

The tent was stifling because it was edging into the tropical storm season meaning cloying heat and sweat mixed with torrential rains and malaria.

Hurray.

Around me was a group of uncomfortable and slightly overweight pencil pushers from the Manehatten requisition station since the station in Baltimare got wiped out along with the city during the first months of the war and had yet to rebuild.

“Captain Shale, I sympathize with your position but we can't issue more troops,” Quick Note, a skinny, gray-coated stallion with a pale blonde mane said nasally, “the tropical weather is becoming increasingly dangerous and our flight teams are needed to maintain the weather over Equestria proper, we simply don't have enough pegasi to secure a supply route to you.”

“So what, I'm supposed to hold the island with piss, vinegar, and gumption? You sent me half a regiment of heavy armor that sunk into the mud three weeks ago!” I slammed a rust-coated hoof into the table, cracking the poor quality wood.

“It was a clerical error, the environmental factors hadn't been accounted for and the bureaucracy jumped the gun.”

“Jumped the gun?” I felt a dry, humorless chuckle roll out, “no, Mr. Note, telling a mare you love her on the second date is jumping the gun, this was sheer incompetence and I will have all of your heads on pikes when I end this campaign is that clear?!”

Quick Note went pale and backed up away from me, his hangers-on looked equally cowed.

“Cap, c'mon, they're just a bunch of bureaucrats,” Starlight had sidled up and I felt my pulse slow. “The Doc is waiting for you, he says he might have an idea.”

“The Doc? Ugh, fine, you lot, get out my sight and back to your tents,” I ordered, although as part of the civilian support corps they weren't technically under my command, still, unless they had a death wish nopony defied my orders. “Let's go see what old Silver sawbones has under his fetlocks this time.”

His tent stood apart from the rest of ours, it was larger to accommodate all of the medical equipment he needed to perform his duties which generally involved sewing my crew back together after a particularly hectic fight. Silver Twist was a little creepy but he'd saved my life and the lives of everypony in my platoon at least twice, I trusted him with my life. I pushed the tent flap aside and- Static-pain-voices-commands-YESMASTERISHALLOBEY

I laughed as a griffon marksman shot a stinging round at me, slicing a hot red line across my flank, I responded with a bolt from my long arc, blowing his brains out the back of his feathered head.

“Another one for me Starlight, what's your count?” I shouted across the battlefield din as I ejected the dull gray marble that was my latest empty crystal. Starlight snapped it up in a hoof and slid it into her pouch, 'waste not' as they say, my second had become fastidious on that since the battle at Bunker Bridge where every single supply had to be stretched to the maximum length.

“I'm at thirteen, damn feathery goons are getting slippery,” she remarked.

I laughed as I lined up another one, “high and dry,” a grim smile snuck onto my face as my long-arc snapped an energy blast that annihilated my targets left wing.

“Why are we out here again Captain?” she shouted as she put another Griffon soldier down, his body sliding into the muck only to vanish beneath the goop seconds later. Her question gave me pause, a twinge of pain slid across my brain like cold slime, 'why were we out here?'

Fill the field with the dead, the next conjunction is nearly upon us.

I couldn't remember, it was... my idea? Or Twist's? I know I spoke to him but...

“Captain? You ok?” Starlight glanced worriedly in my direction as she ejected a spent crystal and slapped another one into place.

With a feeling like my brain sliding back into place I blinked away the momentary confusion, “I'm fine Charmer, we're here because the Griffons are mounting an offensive and it's our job to put as many of these featherbrains in the ground as we can.”

“So what, we're just here to kill them? I know they're encamped but-”

“Are you questioning my orders soldier?” my tone was low and without any inflection but I saw Starlight freeze up before shaking her head vigorously.

“N-No sir, never.”

I turned away from her and sighted down the ironsights of my long-arc, I'd put over two dozen griffons down, the other thirty soldiers I'd brought with me had kill counts less than Starlight's but notable nonetheless, I made a habit of only having the best with me. The griffons were taken by surprise by our broad daylight attack, the twin efforts of Starlight and Treasure had put all thirty of us into a defensible position on dry land near their camp. The attack had begun without mercy, tearing apart their patrols with kill zones and overwatches, every twitch of a feather put several snaps of long-arc fire into the offending featherhead. It was bold, brutal, and completely unexpected; up until now we'd played a slow and careful game, advancing by inches and only after soaking the swamp with litres of blood, every hoofstep bought and paid for to advance our line. The Griffons knew we were going to push them off of the island eventually, they didn't have the resources or the training for a protracted combat affair while it was a form of combat we ponies excelled at. They were determined to make us bleed for the effort though, hopefully weakening us enough here to make taking a different location easier.

I had decided to disabuse the buck out of that particular notion. The command crew had been skeptical or outright defiant of my plan for a bold blitzkrieg tactic, uprooting and entire camp of Griffons by sneaking up to the very edge of their patrols under the cover of night which our pegasi scouts, lead by Lightning Dasher, had kindly marked out for us. Once there we'd wait until the dawn when the guard would just begin to change, passing the time by triangulating the exact teleport coordinates to drop into the safe drop zone, then do a mass teleport. It worked like a charm, we caught the two entire guard shifts in a kill zone, sweeping down the tired night guard and catching the still-drowsy dawn guard with their trousers down.

Then the fight really began, troops flooded out as we peppered their camp with long-arc shots, mortar fire, and fragmentation grenades. I'd lost two ponies to sniper fire and the fight had been hectic for a good hour past the rising of Celestia's sun, not a bad ratio considering almost a hundred and fifty griffons were dead and the rest were in a full route. I grinned, knowing they'd be back, Griffonari honor would demand they reclaim their lost ground from such a humiliating defeat. This was just setup, this was the big plan, play on their idiot pride and make this field a killing ground for the remaining Griffon forces on the island.

The afternoon sun filtered down as my small troop began fortifying the position, there was no way the griffons would be able to mount a counterattack from any of their other island camps for several hours at the very least, or more likely not until the next day, but it didn't pay to get sloppy. I made perimeter checks every half hour, walking around our newly claimed territory as our forces slowly trickled in with their massive kitbags, readying for the major offensive that our scryers told us were already in the works.

“I'm so proud of you, my boy, this was excellent work!” Silver Twist's vaguely aristocratic voice seemed out of place on the battlefield but I was still glad to hear it as he sidled up next to me during my fourth check. “You took the initiative on this one, really showed those Manehatten pencil pushers what-for.”

I grinned, latching my notched long-arc into the holding loop on my back and locked my hoof around his in a soldiers grip. “Hey Twist, what're you doing out of your tent? They finally let you see daylight?” He laughed dryly, but I nearly did a double-take as I saw several cloaked ponies carrying most of his gear as well as his medical tent. “Wait, Doc Twist, you're not setting up out here are you? This is the front lines and you're-”

“I'm a doctor and this is where I'm needed most,” he poked me roughly in the chest as he took on an admonishing tone. “If I were afraid of a few explosion and some gunfire I'd have set up a comfy practice in Las Pegasus or somewhere else far away from this stinking little shit hole, wouldn't you think?”

“I... I know but-”

“No buts, this is where I'm needed if we're going to finally push these featherbrains off our island.”

I grinned, nopony but Twist dared interrupt me while I was talking and Twist had just done it twice. It was his way, and he'd brought me back from death's door after Bunker Bridge, he'd been my surgeon, my doctor, my physical therapist... he'd put me back on the battlefield in just under a month when everypony else had been ready to write me and my whole unit off. We'd become the Revenants, the Red 109th, and we had a reputation for invincibility. In truth though it was the Doctor who had given us that reputation, he'd performed medical miracles with a scalpel, some general anesthesia, and duct tape, keeping us alive and kicking despite the fact that not a single mother's son of us hadn't had our ticket punched at least once only to be pulled back from the edge. I should have been dead a dozen times since Bunker Bridge but every time, there was Twist with his medical bag, standing over me with that strange smile as he stitched and patched me up, and always with the same words.

'I'm so proud of you, my boy.'

It made my chest tighten a little every time I heard the words, maybe it was just what was left of little orphan Jasper but I imagined sometimes that that was the kind of thing a father would say.

“Ok, but I'm leaving Lightning Dasher and Honey Withers with you,” he grimaced but shrugged his assent. “Hey, you're our resident miracle worker, can't have a stray mortar round falling on your head while your hoof deep in some poor bastard's guts.”

“I guess that would probably void my medical license, hm?” he quipped as he began helping his assistants set up. I chuckled, turning to respond but my eyes met a pair of strange eyes, gold and vermillion and... “there is work to be done come nightfall Number 109.”

Static-pain-voices-commands-YESMASTERISHALLOBEY

Night had fallen and the soldiers enjoyed the welcome chill in the air after the day's heat, the darkness was absolute, broken only by a few magic lanterns scattered here and there. I stood at the edge of the perimeter, my hooves and coat caked in mud.

I was suffering a moment of cognitive dissonance as I suddenly couldn't remember how I'd gotten there or what I'd done all day. I... I'd been walking with Silver Twist, discussing the day and... and then he'd said something to me. I couldn't remember it though, something about having a job to do, needing to...

I felt reached into my greatcoat and pulled out a shimmering gemstone, an amethyst of the purest quality and it was easily the size of my entire hoof. A deep and unsettling light poured out from within, there was something inside it but... but...

It is not yet time.

It wasn't time to use it, I had orders to use it only once the battle had commenced and... that's right: after I talked to Twist I went out of the camp, I'd been reconnoitering out in the swamps, tracking enemy movements, and they were beginning to gather in force and I needed to warn the camp to ready themselves for the attack. I reached the camp, looking for familiar faces, I saw Charmer talking to a unicorn from the 41st infantry, they'd come in alongside us, and I saw Dasher and Withers over by the Doctor's tent but... nopony else. In fact it seemed like the entire battlegroup was made up of the 41st, that irked me a little since this was my operation. I had a feeling that it was somepony in the Manehatten command staff who was miffed that I'd gone ahead with my so-called suicide run that they'd been so opposed to and come out smelling like roses.

Metaphorically anyway.

There was nothing I could do this late in the game now though, but somepony would be neck deep in pony pies when I got a hold of them for hedging out my company. The command tent was off to the side and draped in camouflage on my advice after Knock Shod, the commanding officer of the 41st, almost got a mortar dropped on his puffed blue mane after he'd brushed off the idea. After that he'd been more than happy to adopt any and all of my suggestions, he was a nice guy really but not at all command material, I figured some rich pops had put him in the position hoping to garner a little wartime glory for the family name. Shod knew it too, he just wanted to survive the war and go back home, a fairly common desire with which I had a hard time sympathizing.

“Really?” I'd asked him one night as we kicked back some well aged Wild Pegasus whiskey after a rather long-winded defense against a sizable Griffon warband, he'd looked at me strangely in response.

“What? You want this war to last forever?” he'd asked, openly appalled at the idea.

I shrugged, “No, of course not, but still, I think there's something kind of charming about the sound of bullets and mortar shells flying past.”

He shook his head in disbelief before laughing and slugging back another glass, “Captain Shale, you're insane, you know that?”

“It has been said, Captain Shod, it has been said.”

We'd shared a good laugh and a decent rapport ever since and he always took my tactical suggestions into account, they kept a lot of his men alive and I knew they respected him for it. So I pushed into the tent's single expansive room trailing mud and gunk. On sight Captain Shod stood up from where he'd been crouched over a half-accurate map of the surrounding area.

“Captain Shale, what news and... why all the mud?” I looked at my coat distastefully.

“I've been reconnoitering out in brush, watching for signs of Griffon activity, their massing right now, I think they're readying for their first strike,” his green coat became a shade paler as I spoke, “we might have an hour, probably less to be honest though.”

“R-Right, ready the troops, I'll be out in a moment!” he shouted, his voice breaking only a little.

“Aye sir,” I sketched a mock salute and smiled easily, we were the rank so it was unnecessary but he always saluted me anyway and I always returned the gesture. He relaxed a little at it and returned the salute in sincerity.

“Celestia go with you Shale.”

“And you, Knock Shod.”

I rushed out of the command tent, barking orders to the few sergeants and lieutenant's I recognized to start forming the battle and skirmish lines and to pass the word along. We didn't want to sound any kind of loud alarm, the idea was to trick the Griffons into staging their attack on us while they thought we were unready. It would've worked too if they hadn't pulled their own fast one on us as soon as our battle lines were formed.

The ground fell out from under us as tunnels and holes split open beneath us and massive grey-coated beasts wearing thick pelt armor and pot-shaped helmets, bearing vicious pikes and cleavers as they began mincing our forces.

“DIAMOND DOGS!” I roared over the commotion as I leveled my long-arc from my position in the back ranks and took a shot at one only to have the blast daze it as it pinged off of it's crude but clearly effective helmet.

How the buck did those things burrow through the a damn SWAMP?!” a soldier yelled from beside me, taking shot after shot at the creatures. The blasts did little more than annoy them, made as they were for precision shooting which, on a Dog, meant the head, and with the head covered their tough hides and meaty bodies absorbed the worst of the hits.

“Plenty of both swampland and Dog clans in Gryfa, and gems grow everywhere,” I barked as I placed a shot between under the neck-guard of one of the Dogs and was rewarded with a spurt of arterial crimson. “It must be a swamp clan!”

“Luna-damn it,” he swore as he took another shot at a closing Dog, the blast throwing it off a bit but failing to interrupt his charge. A single blast from my long-arc to its kneecap took care of that though, tripping it to the ground where another soldier galloped up, sticking the beast with a bayonet through its brutish heart.

The soldier died as sniper fire from the unseen Griffon forces took his head off in a blast of gore, I had no time to search for the shooter, I was too busy keeping the Diamond Dogs from overrunning my position. I ducked behind a sand bag as another shot blew the head off of yet another soldier near me, a grim part of my was glad my soldiers had been hedged out, this was one massive clusterbuck from start to finish.

“Charge them down!” I roared as I snapped off the last two blasts from my long-arc into the face of a charging Dog, the first pinging harmlessly off of its helmet but the second tore through the beast's eye. I pulled my scythe from its holster and swept in low beneath pike wielded by a particularly large and dim looking specimen and cut the leg out from under the stunned Dog, inadvertently showering myself with blood. Several soldiers joined me, eschewing the suddenly less effective long-arcs for their swords or, failing that, bayonets or even their bare hooves.

It was the only option, we might be buried neck deep in stinking Dogs but, ironically, the massive bulk of the beasts gave us ample cover, spoiling any sniper shots from the distance. After a few minutes of bloody melee I heard several crowing Griffon battlecries rise from the distant mist, we'd finally frustrated them enough to draw them out.

“Collapse together troops!” I spat between crimson sweeps, “fall into formation! The featherheads cometh!” I laughed around the mouth-grip as I buried the blade into the neck of distracted Dog and backpedaled, I could see winged shapes sweeping over us through the mist. A dozen particularly scarred and ferocious specimens of the griffon attack force landed, spinning spiked chains and drawing talwars as they readied for some good old-fashioned bloodshed.

At least they were until the ground exploded for the second time. At first I thought it was more Diamond Dogs until the first pieces of stinging shrapnel punched through my greatcoat, shredding the troops around me; Pony, Dog, and Griffon alike all were blown away, hot metal eviscerating flesh of friend and foe.

“LANDMINES!” somepony screamed over the torrent of noise and pain, I scrabbled backwards out of the killing ground.

'How the buck had we not noticed an entire minefield?' I thought angrily as I pulled back, hissing in pain as more shrapnel bit through the thick and spell-hardened material of my coat. 'Impossible, we'd come through this way, I'd come through here, nopony was that lucky. I... I'd just finished reconnoitering out here right? I couldn't have missed a whole Luna-damned minefield.'

There is work to be done before nightfall, Number 109.

Twist's voice echoed in my skull like a hammer as I staggered around moaning soldiers from both sides bleeding their last into the swampland before it claimed their corpses. Somepony seized me by the shoulders as I dragged myself out of the field and vomited on the muck and mud, I nearly took his head off before realizing it was Knock Shod.

“Shale! We've got to get out, this operation is fragged, we just lost half our forces and the Griffons are still nearly at full strength!” panic was rich and made his voice two octaves too high, enough to piss me off royally. I drove a hoof into his face, dropping him to the ground in bewilderment.

“Coward! I wouldn't give up a used latrine to those dirty feathered barbarians,” I roared, he backed away with raw fear in his eyes. I could feel a poisonous boil of hatred coming to the surface, the amethyst seemed to burn in my coat pocket, I drew it out and touched it to my horn, drawing the knowledge and power that had been burned into the gem into my mind. “I sure as hell am not giving them an inch of this sun-forsaken shit hole!”

I turned back to the ruined and still exploding minefield, the screams of the 41st infantry rang in my ears as I reached out with my magic and the earth groaning with pain and power as dozens of souls washed out of ruined bodies all out once. Those souls were what I needed, I wasn't going to fail, I wasn't going to lose this ground, even if the dead had to rise back up and drive the invaders away themselves.

Arcane words that I was only half-conscious of spilled from my lips and I was suddenly limned in a searing red aura tinged with an unwholesome greenish glow. Like a tidal wave it washed over the battlefield and I felt them, corpses lying atop corpses, over two hundred bodies from the surface of the swamp to the lower muck. My rage spilled across the veil, snapping out into the darkness and dragging hundreds of souls kicking and screaming back into the mortal coil, brutally ratcheting them into their ruined bodies and chaining them to my will.

“Now,” I spoke in a voice alien to my ears, it didn't faze me in the least, “I command you to kill and kill until no life remains. Go out and destroy them all, you risen dead, and fulfill the will of a God.”

The screaming dead clawed out from the swamp to the horror of every onlooker and charged down the Griffon lines. I turned to face Knock Shod whose mouth hung open in a silent scream that would never be voiced as Silver Twist rose from behind his body, an empty syringe floating in his telekinetic grip, Lightning Dasher and Honey Withers standing blank-eyed on either side of him. He grinned paternally as he pocketed the empty tool and placed a hoof on my shoulder.

“I'm so proud of you my boy.”